As to Miss Room, she always seems to suffer from particularly noxious
"vapors." I'm inclined to think it might actually be "gas." In Frank
Cadenhead's case, I think his gassiness comes from an excess of *haricots
blancs* in his cassoulet. - Miss Room's rumblings might be diet related as
well?
La Rishoi's "I wept..." brought to mind "Spargi d' amaro pianto..." or at
very least "I cried for you..."
On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 10:01 AM, donald kane <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I hadn't come across Mr. Rishoi's eulogy before, and as one
> who often found myself coming to Albert Innaurato's defense,
> I think I understood his worth, but anyone who sincerely felt,
> as the writer seems to do about another individual, must, at
> least intellectually, have led a sadly sheltered life.
>
> dtmk
>
> On Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 11:10 PM, Genevieve Castle Room <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Niel Rishoi wrote:
> >
> > >"I wept when I heard the news. Albert… I had such affection for him, his
> > generosity of spirit in sharing all that he knew about practically
> > everything in the world, was rarely matched by anyone I have ever known,
> > ever. But music! Music! He knew about it pretty much more than anyone I
> > have ever read or known. He loved it, lived it, understood it, and made
> > others understand it. It wasn’t just his great genius and deep musical
> > sense you *understood* that he had, but his psychological grasp of the
> > meanings, intents and purposes of even the most obscure compositions I
> > don’t think many could equal within hailing distance of the level he did.
> > His insights were beyond and above – again – than practically anyone I
> have
> > ever known. I first got acquainted with him through an opera discussion
> > group, and I read all of his contributions, enthralled, thrilled, and
> > captivated. Often, what he wrote put me into this odd state of being deep
> > in thought: he made you think on whatever he had written. Always there
> were
> > revelations, providing me with new, and lasting impressions on many
> things
> > I had never considered before. Brilliant, brilliant man, and that word
> > hardly suffices. Albert was a tormented soul, one of those supreme
> geniuses
> > who grasped everything perhaps too well, and found life difficult. He
> knew
> > too well the pain of it. But it gave him that beautiful depth of
> knowledge.
> > Yet I longed for him to have peace. A lot of the geniuses throughout the
> > ages had a difficult time in life, and were dissonant figures in society
> as
> > a whole. They had dimensions and complexities unknown to the average
> > person. Different ways of seeing things, different ways of thinking. No
> one
> > felt more deeply than he did. No one *cared* about things that were
> > beautiful, and sacred – art – than he did. I regarded Albert as one of
> > those kind of people you felt privileged to *be* privy to the kind of
> mind
> > and insights he had. What he had to say was so much more valuable than
> the
> > behaviors he exhibited from time to time. That is how it is with geniuses
> > like him; something so exalting and out of this world he had in him, you
> > didn’t want to miss anything he offered"
> >
> >
> > This is sweet, but sort of soft-headed.
> >
> > Do you need to be reminded of the fact that some of the most immoral
> people
> > and below-average intellects have possessed not only the finest and most
> > sensitive musical faculties but the most exquisite musical taste? There
> is
> > NO correlation between the faculty of musical appreciation or musical
> > aptitude or musical affinity and “purity of heart". And there is no
> > consensus about the relationship between musical understanding and
> > practical musical competence among philosophers of music.
> >
> > I think what’s interesting is the (unexamined) idea of what it is to
> “love”
> > music. Clearly for Mr. Rishoi this is different from either (a) liking
> > music (i.e., getting deep and lasting pleasure from it); or (b) knowing a
> > lot about music (being an expert, studying it). The idea that music can
> be
> > a love object, which you could love with “purity of heart,” imagines it
> > like another person, and imagines the relation as something in a romance
> > novel..... Kind of adolescent, really.
> >
> >
> > >"It wasn’t just Albert's great genius and deep musical sense you
> > *understood* that he had, but his psychological grasp of the meanings,
> > intents and purposes of even the most obscure compositions I don’t think
> > many could equal within hailing distance of the level he did. His
> insights
> > were beyond and above – again – than practically anyone I have ever
> known"
> >
> >
> > Why do you think that any knowledge involved in (or presupposed by)
> musical
> > understanding must be potentially exhibitable in the verbal arena? Why do
> > you care so much about interpretation or description? Music consists of
> > abstract, non-representational forms. The "meaning" of music resides in
> the
> > intrinsic nature of the progressive forms themselves. And the more your
> > attention becomes focused upon the "intents and purposes" of music
> > (whatever that is), the less your chances of perceiving in an aesthetic
> > manner.... There are admittedly different types of musical understanding
> > but wouldn't you agree that the most interesting or valuable ones have to
> > do with perceptually following the small-scale features of music and
> their
> > segment-to-segment progressions?
> >
> >
> > >"No one felt more deeply than he did. Albert was one of those supreme
> > geniuses who grasped everything perhaps too well"
> >
> >
> > And this sounds like hyperbole as a sort of eulogy for the deceased
> party.
> >
> > (I am very surprised that James Jorden "La Cieca" posted your tribute as
> a
> > separate entry on his blog)
> >
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